Contractors!!

Our contractors were moving right along getting the siding on the house when Donnie called in sick one day.  After a week of waiting and many unreturned phone calls, we finally figured out that they had moved on to a better paying job, leaving us in the lurch with no notice.  Why do contractors do that?

Thank goodness our tile contractors were not like that.  They finished installing about 1500 square feet of slate covering the whole basement floor with no problems and on time.  It looks beautiful!

Our search for wallpaper continues.  We thought we had found a goldmine in a wallpaper outlet on I-85 but were not able to find a single suitable roll in the thousands there.

Tom has been cleaning up some old stumps, moving them around with the tractor and setting them on fire. 

 The fire for these stumps burned for three days.

It's garden planting time!  We planted a bed of potatoes first.

It's also chicken hatching time.  We incubated some eggs for the required time, but nothing happened.  We think Rooster Cogburn is not doing his job.

So we bought some baby chicks and put them under a broody hen.  

She accepted them immediately and was very proud of herself.

For about a month we had a visitor on the farm.  Obama the Llama decided that he liked our pasture better than our neighbor's so he broke the fence and come over to stay.

We enjoyed seeing Obama out in the pasture but he did come and sleep near the barn every night and in the morning liked to nibble on our fruit trees. We finally managed to lure him into the horse pen.

His owner, Ebbie, came over with a lasso and halter.

Once he had a halter on, Obama was very tame.  Ebbie decided to sell him at auction.

We'll miss him.  Maybe we'll have a llama someday.

One Year Ago

Sometimes it seems like we aren't making much progress at all with our remodeling project! 

 But then I look back at where we were one year ago today.

Our little old farmhouse was still sitting right on the highway.

Now we're back by the pond with a full basement and a new roof!

The biggest change inside has to be the kitchen. 

The photo above shows my kitchen one year ago.

This is my kitchen now.  We're still working on it.

My center island was installed after we finished the floors.

It has a temporary plywood top but will eventually be butcher block.

Lots more storage room in all of those drawers!

Sheetrock for finishing the basement had to be delivered with a crane!

We tried to seal off the basement but sheetrock dust covered everything.

All of the "stuff" we had stored in the basement had to be moved to the front bedroom...

....and the front porch.  What a mess!

Glass blocks will add a little light to my basement

 laundry/canning room.  We're re-using the old kitchen cabinets there.

The next step will be adding siding to the outside of the house.

I guess we are making progress!!

A Cold Beginning

January, 2011, has been COLD, with 9 inches of snow in York, followed by freezing rain.  I'm so glad we now have heat in the farmhouse!  The snow and ice finally melted, but more is predicted.

I'd never seen the sunset reflected in snow before.

If you wake up with the chickens, like we do, there are beautiful sunrises over the frosty meadows.

It's almost worth getting up that early!

The house has been unlivable for awhile as we prepared for floor refinishing. We tried to get messy jobs, like stripping wallpaper, out of the way first.

Everything that couldn't be moved was covered in plastic

 to try to keep the sawdust off of surfaces.

Everything else was moved out of the main floor into the basement or attic. We wrapped plastic around the porch and moved Tom's desk out there. He has to have a place to work on income taxes!

A family of floor finishers came and spent a week sanding and putting three coats of polyurethane on the old floors.

It looks beautiful!

We also had a local company install slate in the master bath.

No plumbing yet, but it looks great.

Friday, the 28th, was our 44th wedding anniversary so we celebrated 

at the Brandon House Restaurant in York.

If a marriage can last through remodeling an old house, it can last through anything!

Farewell 2010!

It's been a long, long year, but when I look back to where we were one year ago, with the old farmhouse still sitting by the road, I can't believe how much progress we've made!  

Since the house is still such a mess inside, we decided to put our Christmas tree up outside and decorate it for the birds.  The grandkids came up from Columbia to help.  Sophie made the final cut with help from Laura and Tom.

We all strung popcorn and cranberries and rolled magnolia pods in Crisco and bird seed.

The birds loved the Christmas tree!

Soon after the grandkids left, the snow started falling.  We ended up with about 4". 

 It was beautiful while it lasted

The guineas refused to step on that cold white stuff.

The chickens took one look and turned around to spend the day in their house.

Even the cardinals seemed to shiver in the cold.

Back in the farmhouse, we installed a 9' pot rack that we bought on Craig's List 

from an old butcher shop in Monck's Corner, South Carolina.

My plywood countertops were removed and replaced with granite.

Donnie and Steve had to remove my old/new sink so the granite could be installed.

It's a really heavy cast iron sink!

Donnie made windowsills for my kitchen windows.

We are using leftover tin from the ceiling as backsplashes.

It's starting to look like a working kitchen!

And the bathroom sinks were installed!  I can brush my teeth in the house now.

It might be a little warmer around here, too.

Maybe Reese won't have to lie quite so close to the heater!

Happy New Year from Finca de las Piedras, York, SC!